The popular saying, “The early bird gets the worm,” means much more than waking up early in the morning. It can also mean getting a head start on important things, such as finding a great
summer internship. Have you looked in the past and were unable to find any before they were filled? Start early, and you should be able to find a whole lot!
Early Equals Effort
Have you applied to internships with a single
resume because you don’t have the time to restructure it? Starting early means you have the chance to really put effort into your portfolio or other attachments.
Think of how much better this will look to an employer, instead of just firing off a hasty cover letter and un-customized resumé that might not get you the
interview. If you don’t have enough experience to require a trimming down of your resumé, then a touch up of descriptions and double checking dates might be worth a few minutes.
More effort from more time might just land you the internship.
Early Searching Means More Time for Deadlines
Pro tip: if you’ve ever wondered when you need to be aware of deadlines for summer
internship opportunities, look no further! Most summer internship application deadlines fall in late winter around October or November, and sometimes early spring like April. So if you start looking now, there’s a good chance you’ll find a handful of internships (or more!) for this summer or the upcoming fall.
Consider the Person on the Other End of the Application
Everyone wants to hear back in a timely fashion when they submit an application. Did you ever think that the timeline for hearing back for summer internships is too long so you don’t bother applying? You might want to reconsider!
Time is a significant factor in summer internships for both the company and the applicant! Summer Internships happen in, well, summer, so the company you’ll be applying to needs time to go through the applications and select applicants for interviews!
It Might Pay Off to Start Early—Literally!
The current conversation about
paid internships versus unpaid might make you think twice about procrastinating on finding an internship.
Paid internships for high school students, or those in college, might get a lot more applicants, especially if they are for a high profile company or in a high volume area.
Leaving plenty of time for applications might mean landing a paid internship, so start early! Learn about the
boundaries of a paid or unpaid internship.
Starting Early Leaves More Time for Connection
How do you plan to get an internship? Find one online? In-person networking? Send a lot of cold emails? Asking someone over the phone?
Some strategies require long-term interaction, information, and persistence if you decide to find an internship using physical resources, rather than online job boards, like
Monster.
Again, time is an important factor in all of these strategies, so don’t think an internship will just fall into your hands. University based internships could fall into this category, since some professors could be telling students about internships as early as the fall semester!
You’ll Thank Yourself Later
As it gets closer to May, you’ll be thankful you did all of the leg work (or is it scroll work?) of
finding internships to apply to! April and May are busy months for many students. Think of all the end of semester finals, projects, packing, and more than will need to take place, so a pro of not procrastinating is you’ll be able to spend all the time you need studying and figuring out what’s ahead of you for summer, instead of frantically looking for internships!
If you are wondering when to start looking for an internship, the answer is: now! Fastweb makes it easy to find all kinds of internships that are conveniently linked to your
profile. Go get an early start!
